Do you know what a Scrum Master is?

Have you ever heard about Scrum in your company? Is everyone talking about Agile and you aren’t quite sure what it is? Are you asking yourself what in the world is Scrum Master? Today more than ever before, updating our knowledge is crucial to get upgraded in the market. Before we start talking about what a Scrum Master is, it is important that we first understand the difference between Agile and Scrum.

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Agile

Some decades ago, the software development industry was struggling with taking to long to finalize their products, consequently, wasting time before creating value to customers. As a solution, the agile methodology created a way of overcoming the challenge: the 12 work principles.

Scrum

Scrum is often confused for methodology, but rather, it is a framework or a way of applying the agile methodology. In Scrum, you can deal with complex adaptive problems. This is possible because it is composed of a group of 6-9 people, in a self-organizing, cross-functional and collaborative team. In the framework, no one is leading anyone, the team must decide and separate their actions and deliveries together.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN PHASES OF SCRUM?

Before we explain the first Scrum phase, we should understand what a Sprint is: it represents a time-box of two to four weeks of what the development team can implement in that period. That being said that, it all begins with Sprint Planning where the Product Owner (P.O.) will bring the Product Backlog, which is the tasks most important to the project. The team discusses what they can implement in the first Sprint, prioritizing as the P.O. decided.

During each day of the Sprint, a brief meeting called Daily Scrum, a time-box of 15 minutes serves to share what the team did, what they will do and what they need help with.

At the end of the Sprint, the team will do the Sprint Review where they show the P.O. and sponsors their progress. It is important to mention that in the Scrum Framework the team demonstrates what they did: if they created a software, they will show the software, if they created a website, they will show the website, etc.

Finally, during the Sprint Retrospective, the team will discuss what went right or wrong, and what they should continue, stop or begin doing.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN ROLES?

The scrum is composed by the Product Owner (P.O.), the Scrum Master (S.M.), and the Development Team.

The Product Owner, also known as P.O., has the responsibility of maximizing the value of the teamwork. The P.O. is the one who knows the most about the Product Backlog, the aspect the team must prioritize first. Its duty is to manage the Product Backlog by prioritizing and ensuring everyone gets the best of each Sprint, resulting in better and faster results.

A development team is a group composed of six to nine people, all with different backgrounds who will self-organize the way they are going to work. This team is in charge of creating and giving “life” to the product. They are responsible to attend all Scrum “meetings,” understanding their roles and what they must fulfill to achieve the team’s goal. The development team is also o negotiates what they will deliver in each Sprint.

Scrum Master (S.M.)

The Scrum Master plays an important role in the Scrum framework because the S.M., as it’s also called, is the guardian of the Scrum implementation.

As its first responsibility, the S.M. is a coach, giving guidance and helping the team overcome challenges. If anyone says they have obstacles/barriers, the S.M. is the one responsible to remove the barrier, talking to the ones involved, scaling up the problem and resolving it.

When it comes to Scrum knowledge, the S.M. must be a process authority, ensuring the team understands its role. In addition, the Scrum Master will make sure that all “Scrum meetings” are taking place:the Sprint Planning, the Daily Scrum, the Sprint Review and Retrospective.

This person is also responsible for defending the Sprint, being a shield to the team. After it is defined what the development team should accomplish in the Sprint, no one else will be able to add actions until a new Sprint begins. The S.M. is enabling the team to focus on the define expectations.

As well as a servant-leader, an S.M. should help the team become more effective, conquer challenges and delivering greater results on a daily basis. Without the Scrum Master, the framework isn’t possible as they are facilitators of the implementation. Do you want to know a little bit more about Scrum Master or Agile Coaches? Check it out!

So what?

It is important that we understand our roles and continue learning, so we can become e better each day. This gives us satisfaction and tones us for perfection and improvement.

Have you enjoyed reading about this subject? Everything is really related to a management philosophy: Lean! Lean focuses on team collaboration, motivating individuals, discipline, face-to-face conversations, sustainable development, self-organizing teams with a zero-waste mindset and customer-centric habits. After all, isn’t it always about the customer?